on the east coast at 30 rock in new york city. lawmakers now have less than a month to compromise and avoid a year-end deadline that would trigger massive spending cuts and tax hikes at the same time for everybody. behind the scenes negotiations, absolutely at a stalemate. so both sides, what do they do? they go public on the sunday morning talk shows to state their cases. treasury secretary tim geithner on your left predicting republicans would eventually come around to accept a tax increase on the highest earners. >> you think we'll get a deal by the end of the year? >> i do. i do. the only thing standing in the way of that would be a refusal by republicans to accept that rates are going to have to go up on the wealthiest americans. and i don't really see them doing that. >> if the republicans say sorry, no way, are we going to raise rates on the wealthy, you guys are willing to go off the fiscal cliff? >> if republicans are not willing to let rates go back up, and we think they should go back to the clinton levels, a time when